


linking together, matching harmony

by jeien



Category: Kamen Rider Blade
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Communication, Future Fic, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Phone Calls & Telephones, Post-Series, Series Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 01:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18216572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeien/pseuds/jeien
Summary: The chuckle that comes from the other side is familiar, comforting. It feels like so long since he’s last heard it, even though it had been just a few days ago.(Or: the AU where phone calls are actually a viable option.)





	linking together, matching harmony

**Author's Note:**

> wow it's been two whole years since i wrote blade fic huh...... i had the idea a while ago and tweeted out some headcanons on [what could happen if kenzaki and hajime could actually call each other](https://twitter.com/jeienb/status/1081012242261463040) and i was thinking about writing out something longer but. spontaneity got the better of me lol. i hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
> 
> titled based off [shin sekai by hello sleepwalkers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SHyOrY6QUw) and also what looped to write this lol

* * *

O wonder!  
How many goodly creatures are there here!  
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,  
That has such people in't.

—  _The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206_

* * *

 

“New phone, who’s this?”

Hajime rolls his eyes. “You know exactly who this is.”

“Do I?”

“I’m the only one on the planet you’ve ever given your phone contact to no matter how many times it changes.”

The chuckle that comes from the other side is familiar, comforting. It feels like so long since he’s last heard it, even though it had been just a few days ago.

“Okay, fine, you got me.”

Turns out the only hurdle all this time had just been convincing themselves that they can actually handle talking to one another, as long as it’s not face to face. The desire to see the each other will always be there—that’s just a fact—but their resolve and restraint is surprisingly resilient. Once they both realized that, it hadn’t taken long for them to fall into the routine of phone calls, text messages, emails.

Sometimes, Hajime wonders how they had managed to keep the radio silence between them for so long. It feels unbearable now.  

“You’re terrible at these kinds of jokes.”

“Not like you’re any better.”

“At least initiate a conversation properly. Like ‘Hey, Hajime, how’s it hanging?’ or something.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” the voice on the other side chokes out between the sudden peals of laughter, “did you really just say that? Hajime, I do _not_ say things like that. ‘How’s it hanging’… Is this what you’ve learned in the ten-plus years living among humans?”

 _He’s laughing way too hard at this_ , Hajime thinks. “Quit making fun of me or I’ll hang up.”  

The laughter slows before dying down. There’s one final sigh—and Hajime can almost see the image of a man wiping at his eyes from the apparent hilarity of it all—before the voice, full of fondness and longing and confidence, says, “You won’t.”

He won’t.

They both know that he won’t.

“I’m right, aren’t I?”

“I was going to let you have it graciously, but now I’m actually reconsidering.”

“Hajime,” the voice says, exaggerating the syllables with elongated whines. It reminds him of the television dramas Haruka-san would watch, where a man would embarrassingly call for their lover. “Hajime, you were the one who called first. Talk to me, distract me.”

Talk to me, he says. Distract me, he says.

I miss you, he means.

Don’t let me leave your life again.

“You’re so high-maintenance,” Hajime says with faux-exasperation. But the fondness leaks out, much like it had before on the other side of the phone. The voice catches it right away.

“Yeah, but you still love me.”

When he closes his eyes, Hajime can almost pretend that they’re next to each other. That it’s 2004 and, somehow, things turned out okay between them and the world—no Undead or Battle Fight or eternity separation to prevent humanity’s apocalypse.

It’s been years. It can still be many more years, decades, centuries until this entire ending can be undone. Perhaps it’ll never be undone. This could very well be reality for them: nothing but voices through phones or electronic words that they have to make into phantom gestures of comfort, affection. This has to be enough.

(Deep down, there’s a voice that tells him that it’s okay to yearn for more. That it’s okay to believe in a far-off dream where reunion is possible without the expense of destruction. That there are many things he can wish for, many things to love—and that he can choose to be as selfish in wanting to live in this new world with all the wonderful people he’s grown to cherish.)   

Hajime relents. “Yes, Kenzaki, I still love you. Unfortunately.”

“Hey!”

**Author's Note:**

> come scream with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jeienb/)!


End file.
